When the Sermon is About You

Mark 12:1-12

Opening Illust. One of the reasons Charlie Kirk was hated so badly was because he was direct in his conversations. This caused many, including people in the trans community, to label him as hateful, fascists, dangerous. Ultimately it was someone in a relationship with a trans person who killed him.

Look at v. 12.  “For they perceived that He had told the parable against them”.

“they”= the chief priests, scribes, and elders (27). The religious establishment hated and planned the murder of Jesus because He preached directly about their sin. W’re going to look at the parable and then discuss the proper way to respond when the sermon is about our own sin.

1. The Parable.

v. 1 “He began to speak to them in parables.”

They are in the recently cleansed Temple. Crowd of people listening.

“Parable” normally for the purpose of hiding the truth from the ungodly. This one will be so plain, everyone will understand it.

A man establishes a lucrative business-a vineyard.

Plants the vineyard.

Puts a fence around it

Dug a pit for the winepress. - grapes squeezed upper basin juice flowed to a lower trough.

Builds a tower- Lookout post and a shelter for workers.

He leases it to tenants because he is moving away. The lease includes him receiving an annual portion of the harvest.

Time comes for him to collect.

He sends a servant to collect. The tenants refused to give him anything and beat him (3).

He sends another servant. They strike him on the head and give him nothing.

He sends another- they kill him.

This is repeated several times.

Finally he sends his son to collect. Notice verse 6 “one other” = only son, last servant. No one else to send.

“they will respect my son”. He could not imagine they would do to the son what they did to the servants.

The tenants see this as an opportunity. Look at verse 7. Maybe they think the father is dead and that’s why the son comes. With the heir dead that would mean they could take the land. 

v. 8 They killed this man’s son. They have used his land, used his wine press, slept in his tower, profited from his business and never paid him a thing!

Jesus asks a question: What will this man do? (9)

“He’s gonna kill those guys and rent his vineyard out to someone else!” (Matt. 21:41)

Luke 20:17 tells us at this point Jesus looks directly at  “them” (chief priests, scribes, elders).  They have their own section I imagine. He is staring right at them and He says:

“Have ye not read this Scripture: “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?”

What was a cornerstone?

A reference to the Messiah (Isa. 28:16)

In building, it was a carefully chosen stone. It was the reference point for the rest of the structure to keep it square.

The point is simple, without the Messiah everything the people attempt to do for God crumbles to the ground.

Jesus is saying to the religious leaders:

I am the Cornerstone

You have rejected me

He says this in the Temple, in front of everyone, while looking right at them.

The man- God

The vineyard is Israel.

The tenants are the religious leaders.

The servants are the prophets.

The Son is Jesus.

They were already planning Jesus’ murder and He was calling them out for it in front of everyone.

Jesus is saying:

1) You have hijacked the work of God.

2) You have rejected and killed the prophets through the ages. They didn’t personally do it, but they were cut from the same stock as the ones that did. Jesus called the killers of the prophets their “fathers” (Matthew 23:33-35).

What did you do to Jeremiah? You put him in jail, stocks, tried to kill him.

Isaiah? You sawed him in half.

Zechariah? You killed him between the temple and the altar. You guys are glad John the Baptist is dead as well because you all called him demon possessed (Luke 7:33).

3) You have not rendered to God what He required of you.

Jesus came looking for fruit in the Temple and all He found was a money-making racket.

What was their response?

v. 12- Arrest Him. Plan His murder.  They left him and went away.

2. The problem with the religious leaders.

Why did they want to kill Jesus? 

A. They wanted to be in control of their our own religion.

A few ways you can do that:

Invent one. Islam, Buddhism. Illust of guy I prison who invented his own. People actually followed him. Gave them all identification numbers. 

Reinvent one- cults.

Hijack one- Liberalism/legalism.

Jesus took their religion from them and they hated Him for it.

B. Because He contradicted them.

“Have you not read” many times to them. He exposed their biblical illiteracy. Instead of engaging in the truth they decided to kill Him.

C. Because the devil had them deceived.

If you want to kill someone there’s a good chance the devil has you deceived. If you are filled with that much hate you’re not controlled by God.

D. Because He embarrassed them.

With His enormous following.

With His power. Literally took the Temple from them the last week of His life.

With His bluntness- called them snakes, blind, dead, thieves, etc.

If someone embarrasses you the right response is not to kill them.

E. Because they did not want to give the Lord His due.

They wanted the benefits of the temple.

Money, power, influence, etc.

They did not want to give God what He was looking for: righteousness, grace, mercy, obedience.

They thought if they could kill Him they could get back to business as usual.

3. The proper way to respond when the sermon is about you.

A. Don’t be surprised.

We are all sinners. It’s one of the things we have in common. The truth is a lot of sermons should be about us. God is going to show us our sin and oftentimes He will do so through His Word.

If all you hear in a sermon is how great you are you aren’t hearing the Word!

You can’t read the Bible without getting convicted about something.

Illust. Are we surprised when we go to the mechanic and he says something is wrong with our car?

Are we surprised when we go to the doctor and he says something is wrong with our body?

Why are we surprised when the preacher points out something that is wrong?

Question: Why are we so happy when the Bible points out someone else’s sin but so mad when it points out ours?

B. Praise God for His patience with you.

In the parable many servants were sent.

The Son was sent and killed.

The tenants had plenty of time to correct their behavior.

If you are convicted of a sin, it’s likely not the first time you did it.

Illust. Speeding tickets. How many speeding tickets have you received? How many should you have received? Think about that next time you’re pulled over.

When the sermon is about us we should say “I should have heard this a long time ago.”

Illust. The easiest time to get rid of a stray is as soon as it wanders up. The longer you keep it the harder it becomes. The same is true with sin.

Respond with “God I have coddled this too long. Thank you for your patience.”

C. Thank God for the messengers He has sent to you.

Something very similar happened to David as did to these leaders. A parable that called him out was shared.

David sinned with Bathsheba. Nathan came with a parable. A man had one sheep it was stolen and killed by a man with many sheep. The sheep represented Bathsheba David had stolen from Uriah. Nathan said, “You’re the man!” David realized the parable was about him and he repented. They could have been like David. But they wouldn’t.

Sadly most people choose to hate the messenger rather than their sin.

I imagine we will see more messengers killed in America in coming days.

Preachers are obligated to preach against the sins a culture normalizes:

Drunkenness, drugs, fornication, homosexuality, transgender, abortion, etc.

I don’t understand why so many get angry with faithful preachers. We don’t just identify sin. We point to the cure. We speak of grace. We show the way to forgiveness.

If I preach on your sin it can be removed before the service is over. You can come in here a sinful wretch and leave a saint. It’s that simple through the finished work of Christ.